Tour Guide - Anonymous employee Eastern State Penitentiary Employee Review

The pay is terrible. Tour guides are expected to have degrees, but start at $10/hr and can't always get full time. The pay raise structure is also inadequate, the salary cap ends well before a reasonable wage for a skilled employee. The benefits are also terrible, the health care plan is totally unaffordable at the pay level for "front line staff." There is no paid time off, unless you are classified as full-time, and work year round. At that level you will only get 5 days a year, and it will not increase over time. There is almost no room for growth at this organization. This is essentially an entry level job, and not one that it pays to spend any substantial amount of time at, especially if you are a knowledgeable, skilled tour guide. Your talents will not be rewarded. Management is unresponsive to employee problems, and an unreasonably bloated bureaucracy for its size. Decision making happens at a snail's pace, even for problems that are immediate, and the top decision makers are the least connected to staff. There is blatant favoritism with staff members, and general inconsistency within management; different managers will give you different answers on any number of questions regarding policies and rules. Management is also reticent to admit to mistakes, often making excuses for poor decisions, and refusing to fix mistakes and errors in their interpretation of Eastern State's history, to the point of willfully misleading visitors. Finally, I agree with the first review that this job is often boring. Guides are under utilized and spend a lot of time staring into space on site, waiting to be asked a question. You will occasionally be allowed to read on site, but often you will not, turning potential paid time spent learning about Eastern State's history into navel gazing. You will, however, be expected to increase your knowledge base, regardless of how little paid time you are given to do so.